1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a centrifugal blower, and more particularly to a thermal module using the centrifugal blower and an electronic assembly incorporating the thermal module.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known that heat is produced by electronic components such as integrated circuit chips during normal operation. If this heat is not quickly removed, these electronic components may overheat. Therefore, thermal modules are often used to cool these electronic components.
As an example, a thermal module in accordance with related art generally includes a fin assembly having a plurality of fins, a centrifugal blower for creating an airflow through the fin assembly, and a heat pipe having an evaporating section which is kept in thermal contact with a heat generating electronic component such as a central processing unit (CPU) of a laptop computer, and a condensing section to which the fin assembly is attached. The heat pipe transfers heat from the heat generating electronic component which is thermally connected with the evaporating section thereof, to the fin assembly which is thermally attached to the condensing section of the heat pipe. The heat is then dissipated into ambient atmosphere via the airflow flowing through the fin assembly.
Increasing the amount of the airflow provided by the centrifugal blower is an effective way to improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the thermal module. Conventional ways of satisfying such requirement are to change the configurations of blades of the blower, the configuration of the casing of the blower, and the parameters of the motor of the blower. However, the design and the manufacture of these components complicate the design and the manufacture of the centrifugal blower and further increase the cost thereof. Therefore, a centrifugal blower capable of cheaply providing a large amount of airflow is needed.